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Corny over-the-top scenes without much real emotion. The only character with ANY depth is Crassus and he just happens to be the one we hate. I can't believe Kubrick directed this...blows my mind. The worst of his films I've seen, BY FAR.

D:rotten:

Kubrick is my favorite director and in turn I know what a Kubrick movie looks and feels like. Spartacus does not look or feel much like a Kubrick movie. There were Kubrick moments, but Spartacus just isnt quality Kubrick. The other downfall of Spartacus was that, for a 3+ hour movie I didn't feel it was a rewarding enough experience and for an epic to be great you need to feel like your time was spent wisely watching it. The fact is, I just found Spartacus semi-rewarding and I have no desire to sit through it again. Overall, Spartacus is well acted, well directed (but still not that great by Kubrick standards) and it is just a great story. So, I just felt it was ok.

:fresh: Spartacus portrays the slavery in Rome and how one man had tghe courage to lead a war to free all the slaves of the Roman Empire.

Kubrick directed a great movie with an all star cast: Kirk Douglas as Spartacus, Laurence Olivier as Crasus, Jean Simmons as Varinia, Charles Laughton as Gracus, Tony Curtis as Anthoninus, John Gavin as Julius Caesar, Peter Ustinov as Batiatus.

Honestly, this movie highly entertaining and inspiring. I admired that man after watching it, the only minor thing I can say was wrong is: Spartacus wasn

"I am Spartacus!"

This has become a gag line, first put into play by Billy Crystal doing an Awards show or something. Now its even in advertising. But it started out as a meaningful moment in Spartacus, as the defeated but defiant slaves all claim to be Spartacus and cover for him, sealing their fate to die by crucifixion.

The story on the screen only vaguely resembles what actually went on. The slave army defeated several smallish Roman armies on its way up to the Alps, and could've marched right out of Italy. Instead it headed back south and got trapped in Italy's toe, escaped, but then fragmented and was defeated in detail by Rome, with the survivors crucified along the Appian Way. So the stuff onscreen about marching to Brundusium and sailing away is a confection from the Fast novel. Apart from being gladiators and great fighters, nobody knows diddly about Spartacus or Crixus the Gaul leader, or any of the others, and who knows if they had wives and babies.

Its nothing new for facts to get Hollywoodized, and Spartacus remains one of the great swords and sandals epics. Although he didn't write the screenplay as he did for most or all of his other movies, its my favorite Kubrick movie. The scale is huge, the staging magnificent, the acting powerful and emotional. Tension is expertly built up and played out during some pretty realistic combat. An entire division of the Spanish army were extras in the final battle. Spartacus elevates itself above standard epic fare with some real character depth and human struggle. Its only occasionally hokey.

The music includes some of the most gripping made for a movie, but if there is one thing that hasn't aged well, it is the musical passages that could have just as easily been used for a Western. Its a sign of the times it was made in.

Spartacus was restored in the late 80's. Overall it looks pretty good but compared to recent HD digital restorations that they can do now there's still a fair amount of dirt and blurriness occasionally on the screen. The remastered audio sounds quite good but almost nothing in the way of LFE. Extras are a bit sparse. I think this 2002 DVD is already out of print but it gets an 8/10.

SPARTACUS
(STANLEY KUBRICK, 1960)
PG-13
3 HOURS 18 MINUTES

Yeah yeah, a higher rating for Revenge of The Sith than Spartacus... deal with it.
The first half of this flick is standard prequel fare, lots of eye candy, bad dialogue and really not that exciting.
However, as soon as Georgie Boy starts to fill in the gaps between the PT and the OT it starts to get really good. Not only was I pleased by the dark tone, but there were also several goosebump moments. Whoa

Spartacus (1960)


An absolute classic. This is the Braveheart of the 1960s!

Stanley Kubrick made this? Wow, it's so much unlike his other movies. It's fantastic, with such a wonderfully developed plot and characters, as well as the acting and writing. I love the great climax, too. I haven't been this saisfied with a war movie since Return of the King.

P.S. My reviews suck.

groovy